As a result, salary increases hit a 20-month high last month,
while "hourly pay rates for short-term staff continued to
increase sharply," according to the study.

Candidates in engineering, accounting and IT roles were the most
sought after.

The gap between demand and supply of applicants has been
exacerbated by the falling numbers of EU workers in the UK.

Kevin Green, CEO of REC, said: "It's clear that employers are
having to work even harder to fill jobs as vacancies rise and
candidate availability shrinks."

"The parts of the economy most reliant on European workers are
under even more pressure as many EU workers return home," Green
said. "Employers are not just struggling to hire the brightest
and the best but also people to fill roles such as chefs,
drivers, and warehouse workers."

A lack of skilled job candidates is costing companies around £2.2
billion in higher salaries and recruitment costs, according to a
report from the Open
University last month.

For small companies, the average salary increase needed to tempt
skilled workers to take the job was £4,150, while the same figure
for larger firms was £5,575. The report said that 90% of
companies had experienced difficulty hiring workers with the
necessary skills in the past 12 months.

"London, in particular, is feeling the Brexit effect," said
Green. Hiring is still growing but at a much slower rate compared
with every other region of the UK. Financial services, a crucial
part of the London labour market, is not hiring in its usual
quantity as the uncertainty caused by Brexit makes companies
hesitant.